[ALBERT]

In The State Of West Virginia There Are 65,075 Wv State Employees On The State Payroll.

The Declared Average Salary Of A Wv State Employee Is $24,000 A Year.

Actually, This Figure Is Somewhat Misleading And High Because They Factor In Judges, College Professors, Medical Personnal And Law Enforcement Which Are Not Considered Rank And File Employees.

I Would Put The Average Salary Of A Wv State Employee Somewhere Between $15,000 To $23,000 A Year.

Around 65% Of All Wv State Employees Make Below $18,000 Annually.

A Division Dierctor Making 60k – 80k Annually Could Afford $50,000 For A 40 Mile Volt; Most Wv State Employees Haven’t Got A Prayer Of Owning One.

If You Ask $25,000 For A 20 Mile Volt; 65% Of Our Workers Don’t Make Anywhere Near That Figure Annually.

To Sell A Car In Large Numbers, In This State, To These Folks, I Would Put The Price Point At Around $12,000 To $20,000.

 

[JoeReal]

My officemates/friends/colleagues earn anywhere from $98,000/year to $153,000/year (their salaries are public data anyway, it was posted in Sacramento Bee). They all told me, they won't buy a car over $30,000. The Volt at $40,000 is way out of reach.

Most of them have kids, and they are in college, so you understand that they are financially hard up when it comes to buying cars. But if the Volt would be in the $20K-$25K range or priced as a Prius, they would buy them in a heart beat. They are hoping about the new plug-in hybrids from Toyota will be priced lower than $30K, and they believe that those will be in retail by 2010, while GM will only have their Volt in show rooms.

 

[JoeReal]

And here's that plug-in Prius that they are considering:

Plug-In Power: My six days with a Plug-In Prius
by Tyler on Mon 09 Jun 2008 02:52 PM EDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

Given that oil is over $130 a barrel and gas prices are above $4 a gallon, I figured it was time to test out a plug-in Prius. A123/Hymotion was kind enough to lend me one of their retrofitted cars last week, and I have to say it was an enjoyable and insightful experience. I detail my experience in my latest Clean Break column. Apologies for U.S. readers -- the column discusses fuel economy as "Litres per 100 km" rather than MPG.

What I can tell you is that five of the six days I drove the car I got 100 MPG or higher fuel economy, and on some trips got over 200 MPG and even 300 MPG a couple of times. I found that driving behaviour improves with each day and you learn to use more of the electric battery than the engine, and develop techniques for doing so. The only sub-100 MPG day was when I had a 155-mile drive north of Toronto and back. I logged 55 MPG that day. Otherwise, my driving was mainly 5 or 10 mile hops around the city (I'm an urban dweller), which is perfect for a plug-in vehicle. I used a bit more than a quarter of a tank of gas and only $3.83 worth of electricity (and associated charges) during my six day trial. Most of the gas was used during my one-day trek to the country.

click for complete article:
http://tyler.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/6/9/3736388.html

 

[mwalsh]

There is a harsh reality with all new technology in that not everyone can afford to be an early adopter. Those people have to wait until things become more mainstream, which invariably means also more affordable. Or at least have the technology drop onto the used market at a depreciated value.

But think of the $30-40k price point of the Volt. Entry to mid-level BMW, MBZ, Lexus, Acrua? I'm only guessing, because even though I theoretically could afford to purchase in that price range, I've never really looked to see what that kind of money could buy.

Actually I've never spent more than $10k for a car in my life, prefering to let someone else take the depreciation hit for the first few years of ownership. I also tend to prefer lower end but well equipped small to intermediate sized vehicles (in fact the most recent two have been used Fords - a Contour and a Focus).

The Volt will be an exception. But it will also be a vehicle I'll want to hold onto for 10 years or so (are you reading GM? NO LEASES FOR ME! *except just maybe the battery pack*).

We are due to get the Honda Clarity here in CA over the next few months. But $600 a month with no buy-out option at the end of the lease? Furgettaboutit!

 

[MrBogey]

What I can tell you is that five of the six days I drove the car I got 100 MPG or higher fuel economy, and on some trips got over 200 MPG and even 300 MPG a couple of times. I found that driving behaviour improves with each day and you learn to use more of the electric battery than the engine, and develop techniques for doing so. The only sub-100 MPG day was when I had a 155-mile drive north of Toronto and back. I logged 55 MPG that day. Otherwise, my driving was mainly 5 or 10 mile hops around the city (I'm an urban dweller), which is perfect for a plug-in vehicle. I used a bit more than a quarter of a tank of gas and only $3.83 worth of electricity (and associated charges) during my six day trial. Most of the gas was used during my one-day trek to the country.

A car like that would be near worthless to me because I only go under 50mph when stuck in traffic. Which constitutes all of 8 miles a day while the other 12 are wide open going 55-60. It'd be better for me to get an ultra-efficient gas car tha a plug-in Prius.

 

[jeffreykb]

Volt resale value

Vehicle resale value can be the largest item of "total cost of ownership". Average length of ownership is 3-5 years. GM vehicles is not known for their resale value. If GM intends to offer dramatic changes every year for the Volt, resale may be terrible.

 

[RRRB]

price/volume

The straight line that relates the price to the number sold, as used in the first course in economics, starts with a volume of only 1, at the left end of the horizontal scale. If there is only 1 available it can command a high price. Then of course the price must decline steadily to allow larger and larger numbers to be sold.

In the first year of the Volt the supply will apparently be limited to about 200 cars per week, across all 50 states. Fewer than 4 will go to NC, where I live, or to WVa, as most will be destined for CA. Although the average income in NC is not much higher than WVa, there is a small fraction of the NC population who have much higher incomes. There will be the interest and demand for up to 4 cars a week in both places, even if the Volt is about $50K. After all, that is the same as Corvettes, and some of those are sold, every week, in both places, as are small numbers of other cars at even higher prices.

Of course, as volumes grow in subsequent years, the price has to come down. When it does, there will be a receptive market.

 

[BigRedFed]

In The State Of West Virginia There Are 65,075 Wv State Employees On The State Payroll.

The Declared Average Salary Of A Wv State Employee Is $24,000 A Year.

Actually, This Figure Is Somewhat Misleading And High Because They Factor In Judges, College Professors, Medical Personnal And Law Enforcement Which Are Not Considered Rank And File Employees.

I Would Put The Average Salary Of A Wv State Employee Somewhere Between $15,000 To $23,000 A Year.

Around 65% Of All Wv State Employees Make Below $18,000 Annually.

A Division Dierctor Making 60k – 80k Annually Could Afford $50,000 For A 40 Mile Volt; Most Wv State Employees Haven’t Got A Prayer Of Owning One.

If You Ask $25,000 For A 20 Mile Volt; 65% Of Our Workers Don’t Make Anywhere Near That Figure Annually.

To Sell A Car In Large Numbers, In This State, To These Folks, I Would Put The Price Point At Around $12,000 To $20,000.

Albert,

I live in WV. 90% of the state functions are redundant,unnecessary and wasteful. Simply cut the jobs and let them get better ones and raise the pay of the rest, return any left over to those of us paying taxes and then we might be able to afford our own Volts.

 

[johninc]

Over $30K and forget about "the revolution"

Its not just a matter of who can afford the Volt, but also about comparable vehicles in the price range. In the $30k to $40k range, the Volt is competing with lower end luxury cars, many of which get more than 30 mpg. In the $25k range, you have both the Civic Hybrid and the Prius, which are well entrenched in the market. Can the Volt really be worth $10-15k more than them? That difference in price is 50% of the cost of a second Prius. And both of those vehicles qualify for tax rebates. Unless GM can get the price of the Volt down to $25k, they may as well not even release it. The masses will not flock to a Volt over $30k. And who knows but its possible that by 2012, the Tesla will be around $40k - who will buy the Volt then? It looks like the Volt is destined to failure before it has even gotten to the showrooms.

 

[JoeReal]

A car like that would be near worthless to me because I only go under 50mph when stuck in traffic. Which constitutes all of 8 miles a day while the other 12 are wide open going 55-60. It'd be better for me to get an ultra-efficient gas car tha a plug-in Prius.

Just to clarify: MrBogey's quoted lines were not my writing or my opinionated message, but rather it was taken from the article of Tyler that I posted a link to...

 

[Deanwvu]

Under 20k??

Under 20,000 would be awesome, but it's not gonna happen.


It all depends on what else is out there too, in 2010 or 2011, whenever this all happens.

The Aptera--that, I would jump on now if I lived in SoCal (I would already have a reservation). The MiEV, if it really delivers 100 miles, and is around 20k--I would buy that too.


Basically, I would buy an all-EV and keep my cars, if the all-EV is around 25k or less. The VOLT.... if it keeps up to claims, I would pay 30k-33k.... and get rid of one of our cars.

My wife and I pay about $5000 a year in fuel right now....